"The Committee can only conclude that, despite claims to the contrary, many companies in the gas and oil industry will not complete Y2K remediation efforts in time." US Senate Committee

The Senate report on oil and gas has the above statement in its summary. These are not the words of one individual, but rather are the committee's assessment.
This is one of those summary statements that didn't make it into the headlines.
Let's discuss the implications of this statement. What specifically happens if, let's say the other utilities somehow make it, but the supply of oil is cut off.
Suppose gasoline is either not available or is in short supply. The price of gasoline will skyrocket. The cost of trucking will skyrocket. The cost of goods made with petroleum will skyrocket.
Does the following step-by-step progression seem likely:
Refinery workers will lose jobs.
Some truckers, taxi drivers lose jobs.
Some low-income workers can no longer afford to commute, and, if it is too far to ride a bicycle, they have to quit their jobs.
All goods rise in price because the cost of transporting them rises.

Where does this lead?
Has anyone out there done any real preparing for a scarcity of gasoline.
What can a regular homeowner do?
Will filling a few gas cans with gas make much difference? (I'm not sure what else to do).

Answers

I can only answer as to what I personally have done. I drive a SUV
(and I don't give a flying #&^# if it's becoming politically
incorrect) which means I go through a fair amount of gas. I also work
fairly long, irregular hours, so in the event I still have a job, car
pooling would be difficult at best. But one bright spot is that I live
in South Florida. My solution? I bought a small single cylinder,
4 stroke 250cc dual purpose motorcycle. It gets about 60-70 mpg, is
easy to work on, and reliable. I realize that if you live in the great
white north, a motorcycle in January isn't the solution, but if
problems continue into summer, a small bike might be worth its weight
in gold.

It had been years since I've ridden, and I had forgotten how much fun
it was! Needing a break from the doom and gloom, I rode it down to the
Keys for a three day weekend last Saturday, and I didn't even bring my
laptop along. A much needed R&R break.

SAFETY is a major concern when storing gas. We're lucky, we have a shed FAR from the house, and will have at least 2 55 Gal. drums for gas, and a few more for kero. If the monster shows up, the housemates SUV goes in mothballs, and my old Honda CRX that gets 30+ MPG will be our transportation.

Again SAFETY. Many people don't have anywhere to store this much, let alone store it safely.
-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), March 17, 1999.

You're right, filling a few can gas will not make much difference.
Storing large amounts of gasoline in your garage or near your home is
unsafe, and as I understand it, it is illegal.

Most of my electric utility's plants (Texas) are natural gas fired,
using natural gas from Texas and the Gulf coast.

Remember, if gasoline prices double or triple, it's still worth it to
make the commute to work if you still have a job. Seems like this
would cause the prices of most everything to skyrocket though.

What does the statement mean? Does it mean they will not be done
remediating their critical systems or all systems? Will they be able
to operate at 100%, 90%, 50%, or 20% of capacity? Do systems need to
be totally fixed in order to work? Is this in regards to hardware,
software, billing systems, etc? Does it mean drilling stations,
refineries, or gas stations? The questions could go on and on.

One word: RATIONING. The government will take control of whatever
sparce resources are threatened by public buying panic and/or
production/supply shortages. This will ensure a black market economy
where prices will be astronomical, but will also be a crime to buy or
sell through.

It will cripple our 'economy' because we run on easy money, plentiful
and cheaap energy. More specificly what will you do if you can't get
heating oil in February???